


The Coyote

by historicallyredacted (lockandkey)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, M/M, Minor Character Appearences, Were-Creatures, Werecoyotes, it's not specific, kind of, werebear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-07-07 06:57:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15903198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lockandkey/pseuds/historicallyredacted
Summary: After a series of mistakes and failed plans, coyote Leo finds himself in wolf territory. To survive, he'll need help.That bear looks friendly, right?





	The Coyote

**Author's Note:**

> This was actually inspired by southwestern native peoples legends. (I didn't use any specific stories here, nor am I implying the characters in this are the actual mythological Coyote, etc. I'm not going to be using any myths specifically in this.)
> 
> So, is it a werecreature story? kind of. in a loose sense? I didn't think that far. You could also think of it like sects or species of humanoids too, resembling those animals structures.   
> It really isn't that important.

   
  
  
  It hadn’t been a good idea, okay? Leo admitted that, fully. He was up front, completely open about his mistakes. And, there were _many_ , his mistakes had a list longer than the ocean was deep. This one, however, was particularly foolish… if not a bit suicidal.   
  
Leo leapt over a fallen log, landed, and kept running at full tilt. He was fast, faster than they were, but Leo would probably tire out long before they would; which meant he needed to get far enough away that he’d be able to reliably hide himself until it was safe to move again.   
  
All because he got a stupid idea in his head. A no good stupid rotten idea.   
  
Food was scarce, alright? It was autumn, the leaves were falling, and crops had mostly died off by now [apart from some rich assholes greenhouses].    
He’d been too busy in the spring and summer, making things, courting lovelies, to really stop and stock pile his food for the winter. That was his first major mistake along the way, the next was thinking that the _wolves_ had food while he was stuck out here. Wolves had a huge stockpile of food. They had more food than they needed, really.   
  
He thought they should share.  
They didn’t agree with him on the issue.   
  
See, wolves were proud creatures. They had a _“reputation”_ to uphold.   
If it got out that a single coyote had broken into their storehouses and stolen any of their supplies, their pack would be laughed out of town, and other packs would put up challenges for the land. Not that Leo understood who would want this scrap of dirt and grass.  
  
Or that’s what they told him after they tied him up and dragged him off into the forest.   
  
“I’ve never really thought much of coyotes,” an older male wolf said, rubbing off a blade on his tunic. “You’ve not done much to change my mind.”  
  
“Just slit his throat and be done with it,” a female snarled at the other. “I can’t stand these lying, thieving idiots.”  
  
Leo was not an idiot, in fact, he seemed to be a few leagues smarter than they were, in his own humble opinion. None of them noticed Leo getting out of his wrist binding.  
“Why take me out here, huh?” He asked, looking between the few wolves around him. They outweighed him, and definitely were taller. Which made them confidant, which was a mistake.  
“Why not just kill me back there where you caught me? Afraid you’d have to clean some coyote blood with your own two hands?”  
  
“Our current pack leader wants _outreach_ programs to the other canids in the region,” one blond wolf said, with a sneer on his stupid fucking face. “We don’t agree on _policy_.”  
  
“Well, then, that sounds like a problem between the two of you then. I really have no place getting in the middle of your affairs on the issue, so maybe I should just get going, not bother you anymore, hm?” Leo was talking a lot, he always talked a lot, it was kind of his thing; coyotes weren’t known for being particularly quiet creatures, after all.   
But, this served another purpose entirely.  He had slipped free from his binds while propped up against a tree. He dug his hands into the dirt, the sand and clay below him, pushing past the sediments and moss.   
  
Before the wolves even had time to react, Leo threw the earthy material into a few of their faces. This gave him enough time to grab a fairly reasonably sized stick next to him and let it acquaintance itself with one of his captors’ kneecaps and yet another’s groin region. It was an effective enough strategy, the ones that weren’t digging dirt and pine needles out of their red eyes, were grunting and doubled over, which gave him all the time in the world to run for safety.  
  
That’s where Leo found himself now, running deeper and even further into the woods he’d been left in, attempting to save his life in an area he was in no way familiar with. Leo wasn’t a desert or plains coyote, he was an _urban_ coyote; his food came from shops, he had no ‘pack’ to speak of anymore.   
  
It wasn’t like Leo wanted to leave the city. That was another mistake, a story for another time. Instead of hanging out amongst the rats, raccoons, cats and dogs – Leo found himself being thrown in the back of a truck and dumped off in the middle of nowhere land.   
But, Leo knew there were animals around here. They survived, why couldn’t he, at least until he could get home to his underpass. He met up with a distant friend, a wild raccoon that told him where to get food. But, their version of getting food was actually real _hunting_. Leo didn’t hunt. He had no idea how to hunt. He’d never met a raccoon in the city that knew how to hunt either. They were all sort of in the same spot, they scavenged, they stole, they did what they needed to, to survive.   
  
If _that_ had seemed like a hard life, then this was a whole new level of hell on earth. Leo had begun to realize he had idea how animals survived outside of cities, the ones that grew their own food, the ones that caught fish and other animals themselves.   
Leo knew how to sneak past security cameras, knew how to enter an apartment completely silently, knew how to talk and distract with sleight of hand; but knowing how to survive in the wild was not one of those things.   
Which led him to the idea of getting food from those who did know how to hunt, and back to his current predicament.   
  
A shout echoed somewhere behind him, Leo was trying to speed up… but he was beginning to slow down. They were getting too close, and there wasn’t enough time to save himself before they caught up and found him. This wasn’t good. It was very much not good; he was indeed, a complete idiot, they were right.   
Until Leo made it up to the top of a hill, and saw a cabin at the bottom, resting along a small lake. It didn’t look like there was anyone around, and the singular house really didn’t scream wolf to him; so praying to all of the stars in the sky, Leo bolted as quickly down the hill as he could, but tumbled more than once, and came away with cuts and bruises and things that would make masking his scent even harder.   
  
As he ran up onto the porch of the cabin, Leo turned just briefly to look for his followers and found them stopped at the top of the hill. He wasn’t certain if they were about to make their way down, or if there was some other reason they weren’t willing to follow him, but Leo wasn’t about to take any chances.  
Leo found the door unlocked and bolted inside, only to turn around and slam a plank of wood down to lock it, and grabbed a nearby chair to shove up against the handle. He’d barricade himself inside all night and day if he had to.   
The building looked sturdy enough, he doubted anyone would be getting in easily.   
In fact, the inside of the cabin was surprisingly large, and a fire was lit in the fireplace and atop it seemed to be a large cauldron full or something that smelled quite good.   
Leo tiptoed closer, tilting his head until he could see into the pot. It looked like a stew, but he had never had anything that smelled quite so good before, or so fresh. He could tell there was fish in it, but it didn’t have the same nearly rotten smell as they did in the city.   
  
This was his next mistake, entering a home that had a fire going, had food going, and not letting it sink in that someone was most likely home. Someone who, in retrospect, it seemed like the wolves didn’t want to deal with.   
  
Leo heard a creak and turned around to see a figure standing in the hallway that led to the rest of the home.  
An utterly massive individual, in all senses of the word, tall and wide. It wasn’t the same as some of the big felids he had seen in the past, they were big, but they were built for swiftness. This person, was thick, with muscle and fat, and would have maybe even had a bit of a soft appearance if he didn’t currently look like he was considering ripping Leo’s head from his shoulders.  
  
“Wolves,” Leo choked out, but it came out a squeak. “I was being chased by wolves. They were going to kill me, in the woods, I escaped, and ran here. I didn’t mean to…” He waved his hands helplessly out of fright, not certain what to do with himself.   
This man was likely three times his own weight, and well over a foot taller.   
  
“Jason wouldn’t,” the large man answered. “He doesn’t kill coyotes or jackals.”  
  
“I don’t know who _Jason_ is, but the people who grabbed me seemed to be really super okay with killing coyotes. Some little…creepy pale guy was pretty clear on that.” The man seemed to stop and consider this news, maybe he recognized the other guy.   
  
“I see. Alright, say I believe you… why are you out here in the first place? Where is your pack?”  
  
“Well, okay, see, here’s the thing. I don’t have one,” Leo twiddled his fingers together. The stew still smelled really good and he was famished. “Me, and a couple…friends, I guess you could say, were in Portston. And, we _maybe_ decided on taking something that didn’t exactly belong to us. The owner of said object…took me out here. My friends got away.”  
  
“They didn’t come back for you?” the man shook his head. “Some friends…”  
  
“Right?! Anyway, that’s why I’m out here. I just want to get back to the city, but I was running low on food and energy so-“  
  
“You took something _else_ that didn’t belong to you?”   
  
“Right, and, apparently, wolves aren’t thrilled with that.”   
  
“My name is Frank,” the large man, Frank, said. “And I can tell you right now, bears aren’t thrilled with it either.”

**Author's Note:**

> short chapter, I know, but I was feeling weird and figured something was better than nothing.


End file.
